On the other side
by LegendaryLarry
Summary: POV of one of the many guys Joel killed.


Larry entered the building and wandered, looking for anything of use. Randy, the leader of the group had decided Larry was old enough to go on a scavenging, he had recently turned sixteen. The group had recently lost a fighter, and needed another to take its place. Larry looked at Don, who was busy searching drawers and cabinets, half heartedly looking for supplies. They knew there wasn't much left to be found, or anything of good quality anyway. As time went along, they had to get less and less dependent on foraged goods, and more dependent on farming. Larry decided to try his luck in the manager's office. Larry looked around, and upon seeing no one there, he pulled out a note from his pocket. It was the note he Jess had given him earlier. It read:

"Dear Larry, I love you. There's not much left in this world that we can enjoy, and not much time to enjoy the little we do have. But I want to spend the time I do have with you. I wish that we were like teenagers from the old days before we were born, like what my parents and your parents told us about. When all they had to worry about was staying thin, teen drama, boys or girls, and none of it comes close to all the shit we deal with on a daily basis. But if you feel as I do, at least we will go through all of it together. We'll stay together, maybe get married and bring a child into this fucked up world where it's kill, or be killed. When Luke brought you through the gates two years ago, I thought that you would just be another mouth to feed. That Luke had no idea what the hell he was doing taking you here, endangering all of us, that you could have been a spy from another group that was out to steal our supplies and everything we had worked hard for. But it was Luke's call, and it was no one's place to argue with him. I was cold to you. I didn't trust you, no one did. It took a while for people to get used to the fact that you were here, an outsider, a foreigner. You told me about your family, about how the hunters killed your younger brother and raped your mother and forced you to watch. I remember you telling me how you felt responsible because you couldn't defend them. You have to understand, you were just a child. It wasn't fair that the burden of providing for your family was placed on you. It wasn't fair that your father abandoned all of you. There was nothing you could have done. We are your family now. I believe that Luke and his crew arrived there and rescued you because it wasn't your destiny to die there in that camp site; it was to come and live with us. I know you would die for us as we would die for you. As I would die for you, as I would live for and with you. If you choose to love me in return, come to the stables at 10 tonight.

Love, Jess

Larry put away the note in his back pocket. He was speechless. He never thought that anyone would accept him in the community, but they did. He didn't think anyone would trust him to go out on supply runs with the other guys, but they did. And even if all that ever happened, he thought that he would die alone, with no one to love him, but that wasn't the case. He did get to spend it with someone, and that someone was Jess; the beautiful girl who worked at the stables. The most beautiful, intelligent, funny, and toughest girl he had ever known, she was perfect. Suddenly he heard a glass bottle break quickly followed by a thud and feet kicking across the floor, followed by silence. "Don?" He called out. No answer. Larry started to panic. He raised his rifle and proceeded carefully into the main room. He saw a shadow in the corner and quickly jerked his weapon in the general direction of the source. Whoever was there was now gone.

"Don? This isn't funny man!"

Panicking, a bead of sweat ran down the side of his head. He kept his rifle on this shoulder and aimed it from corner to corner, looking for Don or anyone else. He started moving between shelves keeping an eye out for anything out of the ordinary. He saw a leg sticking out the corner of one of the shelves, and he went to investigate.

"Shit!" he cursed upon realizing it was Don. He walked over to check his friends pulse when he felt someone grab him from behind. Whoever was grabbing him had his forearm around Larry's neck and was not going to let go easily. The attacker started pulling him to the ground and Larry desperately grabbed at the assailants arm, scratching and pulling. He desperately kicked as his body started to run out of oxygen, and his vision started going black. Then a girl walked in front of him. She was a few years younger than him, with brown hair and Hazel eyes.

When she saw Larry's face, she looked at his attacker and shouted "Joel, wait!"

Then his world went black as a metal blade was jammed into his neck. His last thoughts were of her.

And by the stables, Jess waited.


End file.
